Is ride sharing the new LinkedIn?

Ride-sharing services, offer many New Yorkers efficient ways to get around the city. The idea is that by sharing cars with other passengers headed in the same direction, you save money without travelling too far out of the way. New York Times | July 06, 2018, 16:00 IST

By Alyson Krueger

Rori Sachs thought she was getting into an ordinary Via, a ride-sharing service she had used many times before. She was a senior at Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx, and she had just gotten into her dream college, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, two days earlier. She and her friend were headed from school to Spin, a Ping-Pong club in the Flatiron district, to celebrate.

They hopped in the car and started making small talk with the other passengers: a mother and her sixth-grade daughter. Sachs was chatting away about how she had just gotten into college and could not wait to study journalism and communications.

To Sachs’ surprise, the mother said she was a graduate of the Newhouse School and now worked for a book publisher. When they parted ways, Sachs received a business card and the invitation to apply for a summer internship.

“It wasn’t even like I was on my way to an interview, and I looked nice. I was wearing a sweater and boots,” said Sachs. “I was like, ‘Woah, what just happened?’ Even the driver looked impressed.”

Ride-sharing services, like UberPool, Lyft Line and Via, offer many New Yorkers efficient ways to get around the city. The idea is that by sharing cars with other passengers headed in the same direction, you save money without travelling too far out of the way. But there is a second, not-so-obvious idea behind the experience: It can connect people.

“In the city, even though there are so many people, it’s such a small world,” Sachs said. “In a Via, everyone is willing to talk and be friendly because it’s an intimate setting. And you never know who can help you.”

In April 2017, Isaac Schwartz was in an UberPool for his morning commute. He was minding his own business, drinking a concoction called Complete Start, a plant-rich, low-sugar breakfast shake he and his business partner had recently created. The man sitting next to him, Richard Hall, leaned over and asked what it was. He was curious, he said, because he was starting a new diet but could not figure out something healthy to consume in the morning when he was in a hurry.

Schwartz offered a sample of his shake to Hall, who seemed to like it. He asked about the company’s business model and said he wanted to help. They exchanged business cards. Next, a few meetings happened. By May, Hall had invested $150,000 in Complete Start.

“Obviously I can’t believe this all came from an UberPool,” Schwartz said. “Sometimes something great just happens.”

Randi Jakubowitz, 33, a career coach and human resource professional based in Chicago, was on her way to midtown Manhattan from LaGuardia Airport, when she had the opportunity to use her skill set.

After Jakubowitz had taken a work call, her fellow passenger, who could not help but listen, asked if she was a recruiter. He confided in her that he was desperate to change jobs, that his dream was to be a product manager, but he did not know where to begin. She gave him her contact information and through email afterward, helped him perfect his résumé and suggested names of companies that might have open positions.

“I think what I helped him most with was positioning. I told him everyone wants to get into product, but here’s how he could do it,” she said.

Jakubowitz did not mind a stranger approaching her at all, she said. “I give him so much credit because he didn’t know me from a hole in the wall,” she said. “And of course, what goes around, comes around.”

Even poets are getting in on the action.

Lisa Ann Markuson, 31, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, runs a company named Haiku Guys & Gals. Companies hire her or her colleagues to write spontaneous haikus for guests at events or parties. “We are essentially poetry DJs,” she said. “Except instead of turntables, we have typewriters.”

Last December, she realized she was missing out on an invaluable opportunity. She rode Lyft Lines constantly and often struck up conversations with other passengers; why not write them a haiku?

“I felt awkward at first, but then I was like, ‘You know what, I bet if I was a person in a Lyft Line, and I was just bored on my Twitter feed, I would love someone to offer me this,'” she said. “No one has said no yet!”

So far, she has written haikus in more than 50 cars. Because the riders (or drivers) get to choose the subjects, she has written about everything from wearing eyeglasses to practicing Islam. “One person wanted me to write about how he has been in love with someone for 20 years and doesn’t know if he will get over her,” Markuson said. “Another person chose peanuts.”

While she has yet to get a gig from these interactions, she expects that will change as more people post their haikus online and spread the word about the service.

She also said that this is something she could only do in a car-sharing service like Lyft Line, not a traditional taxi. “Yellow cabs have the glass panel; it’s too hard to have a conversation,” she said. “It feels so blocked off. Plus, no one else is in the car.”

It is not just passengers pushing their aspirations. Cameron Kruger, 41, who lives in Raritan, New Jersey, has been driving for Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno since October 2015. He also has a side business selling pillowcases that treat acne.

“One day I picked up someone at 87th and Madison Avenue to take him to JFK,” he said. “This gentleman said he was the CEO of JPMorgan Chase Japan.” Kruger told him about his business, and the man “bought 15 pillowcases on the spot,” he said. “He said he wanted to support American ingenuity.”

Ride-sharing companies say they do not have official policies regarding drivers or passengers side hustling in ride shares. “We know they’re more than drivers,” said Mo McKenzie, a spokesman for Lyft. In November 2015, Uber introduced a now-defunct program called Uber Entrepreneur that alerted passengers when their driver was an entrepreneur or a small-business owner.